The Handcart Enterprise
by Sith Droideka
Summary: Pioneer Day fic. An away team joins the Willie-Martin handcart company.


**In honor of Pioneer Day, July 24th, 1847, when the first pioneers entered into the Salt Lake valley. This is a pretty major holiday in Utah and Idaho and a major milestone in church history and culture, and so to commemorate that I wrote this last year and now I'm posting it this year. So thank you everyone for reading. Obviously, the crossing of the plains with the Enterprise crew is, to my knowledge, not historical. But the Mormon crossing of the plains was nothing short of miraculous. So in honor of that… I present the voyages of the Handcart Enterprise.**

* * *

The U.S.S. Enterprise emerged from warp speed and promptly broke down over the atmosphere of 1840s-era Earth. Fortunately, the hastily installed Romulan cloaking device worked perfectly; unfortunately, the engines did not.

Hopefully the transporters at least would work. You see, the reason why the Enterprise had come to Earth at this time was to obtain bison, which were extinct in the future and as always happens an invincible "bison probe" was currently scorching the plains of the world to nothingness in a manner similar to the "whale probe" a few weeks ago (give or take a few months…).

"Captain," Spock said on the bridge, reading from an iPad-like device, "we have a report from engineering. The transporters only go directly down, and nowhere else."

"Where are we over?" Kirk asked.

"Over a group of 'Mormon pioneers' who are setting out to the Salt Lake Valley via handcarts," Spock replied, "but they do not seem to have any buffalo."

"Can we just teleport one up?" Sulu said, "you only said, 'go down.'"

"While we can, we need to have more energy going to the transporters to get an _entire_ buffalo," Spock said, reading from his iPad again. "But actually, according to this… if we can obtain some Utah limestone, we would be able to move again."

"Why Utah limestone?" Kirk said.

"Mr. Scott does not say," Spock replied. "However, in order to obtain some, we would need an away team to find the limestone and 'mine' it, bring it to the surface, and then repair the ship so that the engines and the transporter should work."

"Hmm… an away team…" Kirk said, thinking…

* * *

"I don't understand your choices, Jim," Bones told Kirk.

"Don't worry, because I do," Kirk replied. He had chosen himself, Spock, Bones, Scotty, and two random redshirted security personnel to go with them. Sulu was in charge of the ship and Chekov was already on the ground as an "advance scout" to await the rest of the team's arrival.

"Hopefully all will go well," one of the redshirts said. "This is pretty exciting!"

"See, why not copy his attitude?" Kirk asked Bones, "you need to be cheerful."

"I don't mean to complain, but I'm pretty sure these handcart pioneers were the ones hit by an early snowfall," Bones said grouchily. The red-shirt paled. "So we'll be down there for months, and we can't very well survive by beaming supplies down considering our limited power."

"We'll be fine," Kirk said, "No one's going to die."

"If you insist, Captain," Spock said. Scotty finished tampering with the transporter and stepped into his place. "All ready to go, Mr. Scott?"

"Aye, and our supplies should be transported in from the second deck," Scotty said.

And off they went.

* * *

The group appeared at an isolated edge of the camp. Darkness had already fallen but the pioneers were having a loud dance, accompanied by cheering and fiddling. Chekov was already there waiting for them.

"I have already gotten our place in the camp," Chekov said, walking up to the group in his authentic pioneer clothes, hat, and overalls, which greatly contrasted with Starfleet's pajama-like uniforms, "but ve vill all need to be Mormons to fit in."

At this point their supplies arrived: a handcart, several bags of foodstuffs and water, various tools of Bones' medical kit, and a case of Scotty's whiskey. Everyone looked at the whiskey and Scotty sighed. "It's so nice too…" he said as he pushed a button and beamed it back up.

"Well, time to stay sober - permanently," Kirk quipped. "Now it's time to get in the spirit of things. Brother Spock, would you please pass me the pioneer clothes?"

"Certainly, Cap- Brother Captain," Spock said, quickly catching on.

And that's how Captain Kirk and his crew became pioneers.

* * *

 _These are the journeys of the Handcart Enterprise. Her mission: to boldly go where no man has gone before._

The trumpet sounded at 5:30 AM sharp as Captain Kirk woke up the crew of the Handcart Enterprise. "Brother Bones! Brother Spock! Up and at 'em! I see you, Brother Scott, I know you're awake."

"Can't we sleep another hour, captain?" Scotty replied, rolling away from Kirk's direction.

"No. Rise and shine! Awake, ye seekers of Zion!" Kirk sang. And so he woke up the entire Willie handcart company.

* * *

"So, you're form the group that just arrived," a man with a long beard said, approaching Bones as he finished his morning breakfast, "I heard one of you was a doctor. Could you come and help us?"

"…certainly," Bones said, "What's your name?"

"Jefferson Clayson, from Bristol," the man said. "And you are?"

"You can call me Dr. McCoy," Bones replied, "I'm from, well, the South."

"Nice to meet you, Brother McCoy," Clayson said, "if you'll follow me…"

* * *

"How exactly did you join the Church, Brother Chekov?" Captain Willie asked Chekov.

"Oh, well, you know… I was at my cottage in Russia when those missionaries visited," Chekov said, trying to think of a good story.

"We have no missionaries in Russia. Brother Joseph died and none got sent," Willie said, staring at him. There was an awkward pause before he said, "you must've met the Three Nephites!"

"I… uh… yeah," Chekov said. He decided to fall back to the Handcart Enterprise before he got himself in more trouble…

* * *

Scotty was working very hard on getting the Handcart Enterprise to stay running. She had already gotten a broken wheel and the beam had come undone once or twice, but still Spock would pull it while Jim's enthusiasm led the way.

"The wheel's all repaired, Captain," Scotty announced.

"Excellent, Brother Montgomery!" Jim said. "We'll get to Zion in no time!"

"Captain, we have been traveling for 4 hours," Spock said. "I don't mean to be negative, but the historic crossing took several months-"

"No time at all!" Jim declared enthusiastically. "It'll fell like just a few days. In the service of the Lord all time passes in moments!"

"Captain, we're really in the service of the Enterprise…" Scotty said.

"Ah, but in Mosiah 2:17 it says that when you are in the service of your fellow man, you are only in the service of your God," Kirk said. "Now ho! Onwards to Zion, brethren!"

Scotty looked at Spock and Spock looked at Scotty. Maybe he was more sucked-in than they thought…

* * *

Bones and Clayson arrived at the first-aid center. To say it was a medical center would be the greatest lie; the center was a currently-moving cart, the "doctors" consisted of two men in somewhat messy clothes looking over their sickly patients while a handful of midwives and nurses tended to the patients and a woman giving birth. At least they had an ox-driven cart, instead of a handcart like most everyone else; the sick didn't have to move.

"This is Brother McCoy," Clayson said, gesturing to Bones after Clayson climbed into the wagon, "Brother McCoy, this is Brother Waltes and Brother Svenson."

They offered their hands but Bones didn't shake. "Sorry gentlemen, don't want to communicate my germs," Bones said.

"Germs? What is germs?" Svenson, the two of the two men said, "is it bad?"

"Ah, I've heard of them rascals," Waltes said, sounding slightly ridiculous in his upper-class British accent. "Well, Brother Clayson-"

"Don't worry, I'm off to look for anyone else in need of ministration. Brother McCoy, could you please help Brother Svenson and Waltes?"

Clayson ran off and Svenson said, "Are you doctor? We have been praying for a doctor."

"Yes, and you can be that I'm going to clean this place up," Bones said, placing his medical bag on a stool. "Just do exactly as I say."

* * *

Chekov neared the Handcart Enterprise. The handcart company had stopped for the night and all day members of the company had been asking about his meeting with those Three Nephites, when all Chekov wanted to do was return to the Captain.

"Captain!" Chekov hailed as he came to the Enterprise's fire, "I-"

"Brother Chekov! Excellent!" Kirk said, "come, sit down. It's time to read the scriptures together."

Chekov blinked and took his seat between an attentive Spock and a resigned-looking Scotty. The two security personnel were enthralled, though.

Kirk had a book open on his lap and then he started reading from it: "…and Adam fell, that men might be, and men are that they might… have… joy." He paused and looked up at them all. "Joy, my brothers and sisters, that's what we're here for."

"We're here for granite, Captain," Scotty interjected.

"There's more to a journey than the destination!" Kirk corrected. "So it is too with life. There's more to life than just our trek to the West… we have to enjoy every moment!"

"Jim, may I point out that soon we'll encounter the historic difficulties of the Willie and Martin handcart companies?" Spock said.

"You may, but that doesn't change my message tonight," Kirk said.

"That reminds me, Captain," Chekov said, raising his hand. "I was at the front of the company today and the Rocky Mountains are in sight."

"Excellent! Thank you very much, Brother Chekov," Kirk said. "Now, shall we sing a closing hymn?"

* * *

The sky was starting to darken lately, and though Bones didn't know if it was from the Rocky Mountains or the fast-approaching winter, he had a feeling it was the latter.

At least the medical cart was cleaned up. All of the patients were now discharged thanks to Bones' perhaps over-use of future medicine to fix everything from arthritis to kidney stones. But it was that or try and cut people up - With rusty saws on wooden tables. And without even hand-washing.

Perhaps life on the Enterprise had spoiled him.

"Brother Bones!" Svenson yelled, running over to the cart, "come quickly! Brother Edwins is quaking mightily!" Even Svenson's English had improved, Bones thought, as he grabbed his pills and followed Svenson off…

* * *

"Captain, based on our observation from up here, a large weather system is coming towards you. It looks like a big winter storm," Uhura said via com-badge to Kirk one night.

"Worry not, Sister Uhura, we're safe in the Lord's hand," Kirk replied, as he looked off towards the horizon and the ominous dark clouds visible there. "Be still and know that I am God," he quoted before putting the com-badge away and laid down to rest. He shivered a little. His blanket was perfectly warm, and he had no reason to worry… but he knew that the next few weeks would not be pretty.

"Captain," Spock said, appearing in front of Kirk's tent, "that storm is advancing much faster than we anticipated-"

"Don't worry, Brother Spock, just bundle up," Kirk said, forcing himself to sound confident. "And that's an order."

"…I will tell the crew to 'bundle up' tightly tonight," Spock said, and he disappeared into the dusk.

Dark times were indeed afoot.

* * *

At first the snowfall was wonderful - until it started snowing more and more. "I wish I had my scotch," Scotty grumbled as he pushed the Handcart Enterprise in the back while Kirk and Spock pulled in the front.

"R-r-run and not be w-weary, Mr.- Brother Scott," Kirk said, shivering slightly. "A-at least we're al-almost at the R-Rockies-"

"We'll be in Utah before long," Spock added, but even he seemed a little unsure.

A heavily-coated figure fought his way to the Enterprise. "Captain," Chekov, the figure, yelled, "the security personnel are with Dr. McCoy now - he's trying to heal their frostbite but it doesn't look good."

"Scotty, can you beam them back up to the Enterprise?" Kirk said.

"I - I don't know, Captain. I'll try tonight," Scotty said.

The Handcart Enterprise hit a bump and the wheel spontaneously fell off, scattering their supplies all in the snow, and knocking Spock and Kirk over. Chekov sprang to their help while Scotty frantically tried to place the wheel back. Fortunately, a few pioneer women rushed over and helped them reassemble the Enterprise.

"This'll be a long winter…" Scotty muttered

* * *

Ensign Krishnov, one of the redshirt security personnel, was beamed back but Ensign Ruskanen remained under Bones' care in the medical cart. His two medical assistants were out amongst the other carts, leaving Bones to try and help warm up Ruskanen's frozen feet and hands with nothing but old quilts.

"Isi… äiti… mä haluan olla teijän kanss…" Ruskanen whimpered.

"Don't worry," Bones said, not understanding anything she said, "it'll be alright, it's just a little frostbite, I'll get more supplies soon-"

"Mä oon kohta teijän kanss…"

"Don't worry," Bones growled. He said some things not very apt for a Mormon community. "Where is my supplies?!"

"Here," someone said. An old-looking man with a long white beard and tanned skin stepped forward and gave Bones a briefcase, which Bones took. He turned around frantically and searched the briefcase until he found an anti-frostbite hypospray with a lot of uses. He injected Ruskanen and then turned around to thank the old man.

And no one was there. Bones hadn't head him come… or go.

* * *

"Captain," Spock yelled over the rushing snow, "we're approaching the next river crossing!"

The handcarts had crossed many rivers, but this last would be the worst, Kirk knew. "We must press forward in faith, Brother Spock," Kirk said. He tried to pull the handcart forward but she was stuck in the snow.

"Mr. Scott!" Spock yelled over the snow, but in the blinding snow nothing could be seen.

"Brother Scott?" Kirk said, trying to lift the cart, but his strength was failing him. "Scotty-"

Then the handcart was pulled out of the snow; it seemed that Scotty had pulled though. "W-We go forward!" Kirk said.

And so they pushed forward to the North Plate River. The water was freezing cold and yet not frozen; it would be, in other words, a very difficult crossing. "Captain, we may need Doctor McCoy's anti-frostbite spray after this," Spock told Kirk, "and it's still uphill from here-"

"Stop worry and press forward, Brother Spock, and that's an order," Kirk said. "When I got baptized I made a commitment to follow the Prophet of God whether in sun, rain, hail, or snow, and today the Almighty's sent snow to test our resolve."

"Jim, you were never baptized," Spock said.

"Come, come ye saints!" Kirk responded, and he started singing.

* * *

News had reached the slow-moving handcarts that help was on the way. For Bones, this was _very_ good thing. He'd kept as many people as possible alive, but still some were passing away. To make matters worse, no one could find Scotty or Chekov, and Ensign Ruskanen had to beam up too in the last ounce of power the transporters had. At least the crossing had been mostly painless for him - he just want across in the wagon, tending to sick patients. However, there were still more crossings-

"Dr. McCoy! I found Mr. Scott!" Chekov yelled through the snow, and he helped Scotty into the wagon. Bones' heart sank as he looked at Scotty - he was shivering badly, his clothes were more worn than usual, and his skin was various shades of red and blue.

"Lay down," Bones instructed as he took out his last hypospray. This time there would be probably be no more visitors to give him more medicine either… "Here you go, Mr. Scott," he said, "the last one-"

"D-don't," Scotty whispered, "use it on someone else. J-just keep me alive until we find the li-limestone-"

Bones was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, Scotty" Bones said, "I'll do that." He looked at Chekov, who shrugged and trudged back into the snow.

* * *

It was all uphill from there. Well, it had been all uphill already, but this stretch in particular was, historically, the "women's pull", Spock knew. And while they had no women right now to pull, Kirk was almost out of strength and even Spock's superhuman strength was fading. Chekov was now helping him pull the Enterprise up, but Scotty, Kirk, and Bones were in one of the few covered wagons left, pulled by the emaciated remaining oxen.

"M-Mr. Spock," Chekov said as he pushed from the back, "what's after this?"

"We travel for a few more days before rescue arrives and then we cross the Sweetwater River," Spock said. They then struggled in the bleak cold up the path. "We're almost there-"

The Enterprise slid backwards as Chekov slipped in the snow and mud. Spock struggled to hold it up, but even now it was very difficult. If only - the cart started slipping in the mud. If only a miracle came…

Chekov struggled to his feet and pushed the cart with all his might, and with that push they came to the top of the hill. "V-ve've-we're we're here!" Chekov said, and he sank into the snow and mud again.

"So we did," Spock said.

* * *

It was a bright day when the rescuers arrived. Kirk, Scotty, and a dozen other people now depended on Bones and his jury-rigged medical solutions for survival.

The rescuers arrived on mule teams and lead them on towards the West and the rescue stations. There was one final obstacle: the Sweetwater River, which, while still flowing, was extremely cold. A group of rescuers and some teenaged boys were now ferrying people across the water, but Bones was sure that they could just cross with the oxen.

"Move the patients across first!" said a voice.

Bones looked around him but all of the patients were as the same as they had been - and certainly none of them would have been strong enough to say that to Bones so loudly. Darn spiritual psychomush…

"Move them!" the voice came again. Bones was on-edge and decided to honor the voice. He had the wagon pull up to the water, opened the back curtain, and had a woman lowered down to him.

"Let's just go across!" Svenson yelled from the front of the wagon.

"Move the patients across first and then we'll cross," Bones replied as one of the young teenagers collected the woman and carried her across. In the end Bones got all 14 patients across, although he had to carry Kirk and Scotty personally through the river, and extreme torture on his legs as the icy water's coldness shot through him like a dagger. And he knew what happened to the rescuers of the Sweetwater river historically… if only he had more medicine…

"Alright, let's go!" Svenson said as Bones climbed into the back of the wagon, wishing for another thick quilt. The wagon went into the water and, almost instantly, a wheel snapped off, leaving the wagon to crash into the river-mud and covering the floor of the wagon with water.

"Thank you, God, for saving those patient's lives," Bones said aloud, and then he stepped back into the cold to assess the damage.

* * *

The Handcart Enterprise arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, splattered in mud, repaired dozens of times, and with only a few sick members… i.e. everyone but Spock and Chekov, who seemed to survive the cold because of their Vulcanness and Russianness, respectively. Kirk was muttering about Zion in his sleep, Scotty was just cold and half-dead, and Bones' legs were quite ice-damaged. In any case, they all needed the real Enterprise's medical bay and Nurse Chapel's attention.

"Let's leave them to the doctors and find the limestone," Spock said, "Come, Ensign Chekov."

"Yes, Mr. Spock."

It didn't take them too long to find a quarry and take the limestone up. "Alright, beam it up, Mr. Sulu," Spock said into his comlink.

"…we can't, we have no more transporter power," Sulu replied after a long minute.

All of this… for naught? "Try again!" Spock said urgently.

"I'm trying-" Sulu replied.

Bones cut in. "Spock, Jim keeps trying to mutter something to you," he said.

"What does he want?" Spock said, turning around to face Kirk.

Kirk gave him a weak smile. "Did you think to pray, Mr. Spock?" he whispered.

"I - I did not, Captain," Spock said.

"Pray. That's a commandment," Kirk replied.

Spock looked up at the sky, at the snow-bearing clouds. "O God, if there is a God… please help us get this limestone up, so we can go home."

"I tried again," Sulu said after a second, "it's still not working."

And then the limestone started rumbling. "Wait, we have a surge of power! It's going well! We're transporting it up now!" Sulu said.

Spock smiled as the transporter start grabbing him too. So someone, maybe even this God, was listening…

* * *

All was now well. The Enterprise returned to the future (present) with the bison, all of the crew pulled through, and even Bones left with the Mormons the instructions on how to make an anti-frostbite/hypothermia hypospray.

Captain Kirk was again at the helm as they set off an another adventure. He had had the Handcart Enterprise beamed up too, though, as a memorial. "Well, Mr. Spock, all went well in the end," Kirk said.

"Indeed. Quite a few 'miracles'," Spock replied, "Though there's one thing I do wonder about. The time that Scotty saved the Handcart Enterprise in the blizzard."

"I did no such thing," Scotty said, walking up to Kirk and Spock. "I was buried in a snow drift until Chekov found me."

"Then… who fixed the Enterprise?" Spock said.

"God, Brother Spock," Kirk replied. He thought for a moment and said, "…maybe I really _should_ get baptized… and be part of Zion too…"

"Well, Jim," Bones said, also stepping near, "just don't get baptized in cold water and I at least will support you."

"How about you all join me?" Kirk said.

"…we'll think about it," Spock replied, after looking at the others.

"Ah, well, for now… on to the C12 Nebula. Mr. Sulu! Warp 5!" Kirk said.

And so the Enterprise embarked again for a new adventure…

THE END


End file.
